Education

Senior doctors urge secondary school pupils to get vaccinated

Senior doctors have urged secondary school children to consider getting vaccinated against Covid after the death of a healthy 15-year-old girl highlighted that young people with no underlying conditions are potentially still at risk.

The rollout of Covid vaccines for healthy 12 to 15-year-olds in England started on 20 September, but the process is more complicated than for some age groups because the shots are given through schools and parental consent is needed beforehand.

Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP in Oxford and a member of the Independent Sage committee, said while it made sense to deliver Covid vaccinations through schools, the programme was starting late compared with other countries and that many schools could struggle given recent cuts to school nursing and medical services.

She said the combination of “half-hearted endorsement” of the vaccine in the age group and “stretched services” risked further delaying vaccinations in teenagers. Sending children back to school without masks, extra ventilation, bubbles and isolation policies was “a total recipe for ensuring everybody gets exposed”, she added.

“I don’t understand why we are not getting on with it. It seems urgent. Urgent to protect these children, and to protect their families, and to protect their education,” she said. “We should have started this in the summer.”

Jorja Halliday, a 15-year-old from Portsmouth, died from Covid last week on the day she was due to have her Covid jab. She developed myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, days after contracting the virus. While some cases of heart inflammation have been recorded as an extremely rare side-effect of the vaccine, none have led to deaths in young people. The risk of myocarditis appears to be substantially higher from Covid than the vaccine.

The UK’s chief medical officers recommended a single shot of Pfizer vaccine for healthy 12 to 15-year-olds after considering the impact on schooling and mental health, after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation concluded that the medical benefit to children was marginal. The NHS aims to have most children in the group vaccinated before October half-term.

Prof John Simpson, consultant paediatric cardiologist at the Evelina London Children’s hospital and president of the British Congenital Cardiac Association, said Jorja Halliday’s death was “a sad reminder” that while Covid is rarely serious in young people, it can still be fatal.

The first official figures on Covid vaccine uptake among healthy 12 to 15-year-olds in England are expected this week, the Guardian understands. Dr Nikki Kanani, deputy lead for the NHS vaccination programme, said hundreds of schools in England are already vaccinating pupils.

Since the start of the autumn term, infection rates have soared in secondary schools in England, with about one in 20 children in years seven to 11 now expected to test positive for Covid, according to the Office for National Statistics.

“Any death of a child is one too many,” said Russell Viner, professor in adolescent health at UCL, who has advised Sage. “The chances of teenagers without other medical conditions getting very sick or dying from Covid is extremely small. Side-effects from the vaccine are also very rare in this age group. However rare, events both from Covid and from vaccination can and will happen in large populations.

Dr Camilla Kingdon, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “We encourage children and families to seriously consider the offer of Covid-19 vaccination and, if they have questions, to consult with healthcare professionals who are experienced in providing information and supporting conversations.”

Education

JAMB orders review of 2025 UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has ordered an immediate review of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) following a wave of public complaints alleging technical glitches, incomplete questions, and unusually low scores even as thousands of candidates have threatened to sue the examination body.

The Board, in a statement issued by its Public Communication Advisor, Fabian Benjamin, acknowledged what it described as an “unusual volume of complaints” since the release of the UTME results last Friday.

It said the development had prompted it to fast-track its annual post-examination review process, which typically takes place months after the exercise.

“We are particularly concerned about the unusual complaints originating from a few states within the federation,” Fabian said. “We are currently scrutinising these complaints in detail to identify and rectify any potential technical issues.”.

The spokesperson explained that the annual review covers three stages of the UTME cycle—registration, examination, and result release.

He added that if any faults are found in the system, JAMB would not hesitate to implement “appropriate remedial measures.

“To assist in this process, we have engaged a number of experts, including members from the Computer Professionals Association of Nigeria, Chief External Examiners, who are heads of tertiary institutions, the Educational Assessment and Research Network in Africa, measurement experts, and Vice Chancellors from various institutions.”

The exam board noted that “If it is determined that there were indeed glitches, we will implement appropriate remedial measures promptly, as we do in the case of the examinations themselves.”

JAMB’s intervention comes amid reports that thousands of candidates are preparing to file a class-action lawsuit against the Board over the alleged irregularities.

Many claim they encountered technical malfunctions and inconsistent question displays during the examination.

The controversy reached a boiling point after JAMB revealed in its viral statistical data that over 1.5 million out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for this year’s UTME scored below 200 out of a possible 400 marks

Education

Govt sanctions school for selling position of Head Prefect during election

The Anambra State Government has imposed a one-month sanction on Blossom Fount School, Awka, for allegedly selling the position of head prefect during a student election.

This was disclosed in a statement on Saturday by the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh.

According to the commissioner, the school reportedly demanded N5,000 from each pupil aspiring to become head prefect in the primary section.

Chuma-Udeh condemned the act, describing it as an attempt to “sell the psyche of the children to the highest bidder from the cradle.”

According to her, such practices are unacceptable under the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo.

She said that an investigation was ongoing to examine the school’s broader management practices, with the possibility of further actions based on the findings.

Education

JAMB releases 2025 UTME results

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on Friday announced the release of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, results.

The board disclosed that it is withholding the results of 39,834 candidates over issues relating to examination irregularities.

Recall that over 1.9 million applicants participated in the just-concluded exercise.

JAMB also disclosed that 80 suspects across the country are currently under interrogation for examination fraud, with Anambra State leading the pack with 14 suspects.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, stated this on Friday while officially releasing the 2025 UTME.

He also disclosed that while 467 underage candidates met the prescribed minimum score, 50 were engaged in cheating scandal.